Maybe the problem was that Joe Kinnear's phone remained constantly engaged. Perhaps the self-styled best director of football in the Premier League was so busy talking to his high-powered pals around the globe that the representatives of Bafétimbi Gomis, Florian Thauvin, Tom Ince, James McCarthy et al simply could not get through? Kinnear, after all, boasts about being able to call up any manager in the world, any time, with Arsène Wenger a particularly special friend.

The upshot is that, at the end of a transfer window in which Premier League clubs have spent more than £600m, Newcastle United were responsible for investing around £2m – on the season-long loan acquisition of Loïc Rémy from Queens Park Rangers.

Alan Pardew had been anxious to sign another striker, an extra creative midfielder and a centre-half but, ultimately, all Kinnear's talk about enhancing a squad which finished two places above the relegation zone last May came to nothing.

In any other business the 66-year-old's former Wimbledon manager's position would be untenable but this is Planet Newcastle United, where the owner Mike Ashley, a close confidant of Kinnear who likes to conduct football business over a pint at one of their north London locals, the Orange Tree pub in Totteridge, does things in his own unique, unfathomable way.

Newcastle are in strong financial shape – ripe to be sold, some might say – and maybe it suits Ashley to have Kinnear failing to spend his money right now. If that frustrates Pardew, at least Newcastle's manager has not been forced to sell Yohan Cabaye let alone Tim Krul, Hatem Ben Arfa or Davide Santon.

Publicly at least, Pardew assumed a brave face on Tuesday when he released a statement emphasising his solidarity with Kinnear. "We are delighted to have brought Loïc Rémy to the club and believe he will form an exciting and effective partnership with Papiss Cissé," said Newcastle's manager.

"Joe has worked hard on numerous targets, particularly an additional offensive player. However some of the options that were available within our financial means were not as good as the players we already had and there is no point bringing in new players unless they can improve us.

"We did the majority of our business in the January window, signing five excellent players. With the strong squad we have we should all approach the season in a positive, optimistic frame of mind."

So far so diplomatic but Pardew actually had a point. There is a nucleus of a very fine squad at St James' Park. Last season's relegation dalliance was prompted largely by the demands of Europa League involvement allied to a serious injury to Ben Arfa, Cabaye's loss of form and the personal problems experienced by Fabricio Coloccini, the captain and outstanding centre- half.

With Coloccini and Ben Arfa looking back to something approaching their best, fewer fixtures on the board and Cabaye having World Cup qualifiers with France to look forward to, – once he gets over the shock of Arsenal opting to sign Mesut Ozil instead of him – a top half of the table finish should be attainable.

Kinnear's transfer market flounderings have not helped Pardew's cause but the fact that five players , including Mathieu Debuchy and Moussa Sissoko, Massadio Haïdara, Yoan Gouffran and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa – signed from France last January when the former managing director Derek Llambias was still overseeing such deals dictates this window has not been the disaster it might have been.

Newcastle's manager certainly does not face quite such a daunting task as his north-east neighbour Paolo Di Canio who must somehow assimilate 14 summer signings at Sunderland before too many more Premier League points are forfeited. The lack of fresh faces also offers local youngsters such as Paul Dummett, a young left-back, and Sammy Ameobi, Shola's creative little brother, a crack at the first team they might otherwise have been denied.

For the moment, all is far from lost. Now Ashley needs to pull back from the brink of self destruction by finding a way to retire Kinnear with his pride at least publicly intact and appoint a proper successor to Llambias who can compile an intelligent January shopping list. In the imperfect present the manager is widely perceived as having been hung out to dry but he can still out-last "JFK".

Encouragingly, his side – frequently over dependent on long balls and sometimes seemingly lacking a coherent philosophy last season – played some fluent passing stuff in beating Fulham on Saturday. It is far from impossible that Newcastle might yet exceed an awful lot of expectations. The only problem is that, if they do, Kinnear will probably demand the credit.